Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, 310058 Hangzhou, China.
School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Apr;240:105836. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105836. Epub 2024 Jan 3.
Removal has been assumed to be a core mechanism in working memory. However, it remains unclear whether children can actively remove outdated information from working memory and how this ability develops as children age. The current study aimed to examine age-related differences in removal ability and its relations with cognitive control and working memory capacity. Children aged 7, 9, and 11 years performed a modified working memory updating task assessing removal efficiency. In addition, a battery of cognitive control and working memory capacity tasks was administered. Results indicated that updating response times decreased considerably when a longer time was given for removal, suggesting that children aged 7 to 11 years can actively remove outdated items from working memory prior to encoding the new ones and that removal efficiency increased with age. More important, age-related increases in removal efficiency occurred concurrently with the development of working memory capacity. Proactive control predicted removal efficiency over and beyond age and working memory capacity. The findings shed new light on the mechanisms underlying the development of working memory updating.
去除被认为是工作记忆的核心机制。然而，目前尚不清楚儿童是否能够主动从工作记忆中去除过时的信息，以及这种能力随着年龄的增长如何发展。本研究旨在考察去除能力的年龄差异及其与认知控制和工作记忆容量的关系。7、9 和 11 岁的儿童进行了一项改良的工作记忆更新任务，评估去除效率。此外，还进行了一系列认知控制和工作记忆容量任务。结果表明，当给予更长的去除时间时，更新反应时间会大大减少，这表明 7 至 11 岁的儿童在对新信息进行编码之前可以主动从工作记忆中去除过时的项目，并且去除效率随着年龄的增长而提高。更重要的是，去除效率的年龄相关性增长与工作记忆容量的发展同时发生。前摄控制预测了去除效率，而不仅仅是年龄和工作记忆容量。这些发现为工作记忆更新的发展机制提供了新的视角。
